Dr. Richard Gradone

M.A. Dissertation: A Record of Events Employing Music at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Washington ,D.C., from 1914 through 1971

Ph.D. Dissertation: Enoch Light [1905-1978]: His Contributions to the Music Recording Industry

Short Biography

Celebrating a performance and academic career spanning five decades, Dr. Gradone began at Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Program while in high school. Upon graduation, he attended the Dartmouth College Summer Music Program on full scholarship meeting resident composers Aaron Copland, Carlos Chavez, and Henry Cowell. Undergraduate studies at Manhattan School with the principal trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Mel Broiles, William Vacchiano and the entire trumpet section of the New York Philharmonic, performances under Jonel Perlea, music history classes with Dr. Fritz Kramer, resident musicologist at Lincoln Center, conducting with Anton Coppola, and music theory with Justine Shir-Cliff and Donald Rauscher. At the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., he was under the guidance of Gregorian Chant specialist, Ruth Steiner, and trumpeter, Lloyd Geisler. Doctoral studies at New York University included graduate class visitations by Leontyne Price, Harold C. Schonberg, James Levine, and oral history interviews with Enoch Light.

Ensemble, band, and orchestral trumpet performances in concert halls, theaters, colleges and universities have been throughout the continental U.S. and Alaska, including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, 92nd Street Y, Ravinia Festival, DAR Constitution Hall, Andrews Air Force Base, Arlington National Cemetery, Kennedy Center, and the White House. European sites include Brucknerhaus in Austria, and the 1992 World Expo in Seville, Spain. Local venues in New Jersey include Newark Museum, Papermill Playhouse, William Carlos Williams Center, Community Theater in Morristown, Morris Museum, Shanghai Jazz in Madison, Drew University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, College of Saint Elizabeth, and many houses of worship.

At CCM, Dr.Gradone uses computer-assisted classroom instruction via an integrated touch-sensitive SmartBoard, Epson interactive projector in tandem with Sibelius software music writing, and digital performance programs. He strives to explain and illustrate complex music concepts in simple terms and language through analogy and metaphor. Over the years, he has taught classes in all brass instruments, piano, music history, American music, jazz history, world music, electronic music, aural comprehension, basic musicianship, music theory, and jazz ensemble. He is honored to share his wide experience connecting learning with life in his classes and with his illustrious colleagues in the Department of Music, Performing Arts, and Music Technologies.